Daddy's Girls (While You Sleep Series Pt 2)
by Valenka
Summary: This is a little look into the lives of Nathan and Belle set a few years after the end of The Sleeping Monster. Just a little fluff with a happy ending.


**For Veronicaleighbooks**

It was a warm August Saturday, one of those days when darkened leaves thickly fell from the trees plummeting down to rest on the cold grey sidewalk, and begin the wait for spring when nature could burst forth a new. Belle was at the library taking a new shipment of books before lunch while Nathan took the girls to his shop like every Saturday morning. Deka wore a simple black dress and had her hair held up in a high ponytail keeping the curls out of her face. Deka looked just like her mother and every time Gold saw the resemblance it made him smile. Claudia who had become known as Claude, the youngest at only four, had her father's hair all dark and straight. It was long though and so her little purple headband had a hard job holding it out of her eyes. Both had their mother's sapphire orbs for with Nathan was thankful, to him Belle's eyes were the most beautiful part of her and he was glad to see she had passed it on to their daughters. Deka was a Daddy's girl without a shadow of a doubt, she had a skill for fixing things and was always ready to learn. Every moment she could Deka would spend with her Papa. Claude was more like her Mama and preferred having her head in a book.

Nathan would often save fun little items until the weekend so he and Deka could fix them together. And that was how Nathan found himself sat in the back of his shop with Deka on his good leg helping to fix a fifties style music box for Mary Margaret Blanchard, while Claude played with Beauty and Beast, their Labradors, on the floor next to him.

"That's it." His Scottish brogue rang out. "Just push the mechanism a little to the left."

Deka followed her Papa's instructions moving bits of music box around and putting it all back into place, suddenly the music box roared into life emitting a classical music that Nathan had never heard.

"It works!" Deka cried with glee.

"That it does, well done Sweetheart."

Nathan praised his eldest daughter with a smile and then looked down to check on Claude who was cuddling Beast. Beast just had a look on his face that said _have a child they said, it would be fun they said._ Gold chuckled a little at the sight.

"Papa?" Claude turned from Beast to face her father. "Play with us."

It was more of a demand than a request. Before he could speak Deka chimed in.

"Please."

It seemed his six year old and his four year old had ganged up against him and he would get no more work done until Belle took them for the afternoon. He didn't really care, his daughters were far more important to him than fixing some knick knacks that could wait until Monday.

"What are we playing?" He asked the girls as he set Deka down beside her little sister.

"You're a wizard and we're Princess' kidnapped."

Claudia told him in her young voice, she had quite the imagination just like her mother. The game ensued and Gold somehow found himself sat on the floor of the back room of his shop as his daughters ran around pretending to be scared of the evil sorcerer who had kidnapped them. Gold did his best evil voice all high pitched and giggly, his daughters loved it. Beauty and Beast found themselves as the the hell hounds under the evil sorcerer's control, it basically meant Beast went to sleep while Beauty chased Claudia. Gold lost track of how long he had been on the floor, his leg throbbed in pain as he chased Deka and Claude but he couldn't bring himself to care, he and his girls were happy and that was good enough for him. Giggling echoed throughout the shop as they played. Eventually Gold caught Claude.

"Ah, now I have you, dearie. You woke my hell hounds and have to pay the price."

Claude laughed as loud as her little lungs would let her as her Papa held her up in the air shaking her about, pretending to be in search of all her gold coins.

"Deka, save me!" Claude cried through the laughter.

Deka ran out from her place under the table and passed the dogs to her sister and Papa where she stood tall and announced.

"I've found a way to save us all, even the wizard."

With that she dove on her father knocking him to the floor letting the two girls land on his chest, Deka hugged him tightly.

"Of course, cuddle power." Claude seemed happy with that idea and joined Deka hugging her Papa.

Nathan held them close knowing they were two of the three most important things in his life, Belle being the other. He was so content there on the floor with his daughters that he didn't notice the bell above his shop door sound or that anyone had entered until her heard a rather un-welcomed voice.

"Nice to see you can goof off, Gold." Regina sneered.

The older woman looked down at Gold and his daughters with a furrowed brow, it was like she didn't think there was a playful side to Nathan. Oh, how wrong she was. Deka climbed off her Papa and then helped her little sister up as well while Gold moved to sit up straight. He would have stood up but, he didn't want to let her thing she was going to ruin their fun, that and his leg was agonising.

"What do you want?" He asked flatly.

Regina fished around in her bag for a moment and then pulled out a silver fob watch and held it down to him.

"It stopped working, fix it. It belonged to my father."

Before Gold could move Deka pulled it out of Regina's hand and opened up the back looking at the gears and movements. The young girl made a quick adjustment, pushing it gently with her finger, Regina was about to scream at the child and tell Gold to get control of his children when she heard the watch begin to tick once more. Regina froze in shock as the little girl handed it back.

"It was just stuck. Old watches do that." She told the older woman.

"Well..." Gold began with a satisfied smirk. "...it seems that my _six_ year old his smarter than you. I fear for the well being of the town now."

Deka was more like her father than anyone knew and mirrored his smirk, yes she definitely had the same evil streak as her Papa. Regina huffed looking for something to throw back at him as an insult or at least something to show off her power.

"Put your dogs on a leash, you know the town rules. Wouldn't want to have to write you up." She growl.

"Why? I don't see you one one."

Gold could practically see the burn coming off of Regina and smiled knowing he had yet again won one of her silly little games. Sensing her defeat Regina turned and stormed out almost slamming into Belle as she left the shop in a huff. Belle was nearly knocked off balance as the Mayor left, then again Regina normally left Gold's shop in more of a bad mood than when she entered. Belle made her way into the back of the shop to find Nathan sat on the floor with Claudia in his lap and Deka wearing on her fer father's grins.

"And em, what happened here?" She asked with a smile.

Deka ran over to Belle and hugged her Mama tightly.

"Deka here just outsmarted the Mayor."

"Well, she does take after her Papa." Belle looked down to her oldest daughter with a smile. Claude suddenly decided she wanted a hug to and stood before going to her Mama. "Are you ready for lunch?"

"Yes, dearest." Nathan answered and stood, it took a moment but Deka helped by bringing him his cane while Belle pulled Claude into her arms. He loved his daughters equally but Deka was defiantly a Daddy's girl, there was no question of that, she only proved it by taking his cane free hand in hers.

"Oh, did you hear the good news?" Belle asked, Nathan just shock his head. "Victor and Ruby are going to have a baby."

"Well its about time. They've been married almost as long as we have. It'll be Eric and Ariel next."

"Yeah." Belle looked down to Claude who had her head rested on Belle's shoulder. "I miss having a baby." She turned her head up to Gold. "I think I want another one."

Gold stood motionless for a moment. He hadn't thought about having another child, Deka and Claude were perfect to him. Then again after Bae died he never thought he would get a second chance at being a father.

"Can we have a brother?" Deka asked with a smile. "Like Bae?"

Nathan loved the way Deka spoke about Bae, like he was still with them somehow and hadn't been forgotten; he was truly grateful to his eldest for that.

"We'll see." Was all he could say, he needed time to process the idea, all he knew was he liked it.

With that they left the shop for Granny's diner, the dogs trailing behind.

Deka and Claude never did get a little brother but they didn't mind after all, they got another sister. Veronica. She was the only one of the Gold children to have her father's eyes, dark chocolate and deep with a little golden ring around the very edge. She may have looked like her father but on the inside she was just like her Mama and Claude and that made him smile every day. He'd joked to Belle after her birth that they couldn't have any more children because his house was running out of bedroom, to which she'd responded, _we'll just bunk beds._ They never did have another child though; Deka, Claudia and Veronica were their three perfect little girls and that was the way it would stay.

Claudia grew up to take over the library from her Mama just as they had always thought she would and often had to be reminded to eat and sleep rather than just reading forever. Veronica, the youngest, had a taste for literature in a different form to her sister and Mama and preferred writing instead of reading. She ended up writing a series of adventure novels that went down very well with both children and adults, which suited Veronica since it meant she got to travel, she'd always wanted to travel. Deka the eldest and the most like her father took over his shop and all the contracts for the town, quickly gathering a reputation similar to her Papa's. All in all the Gold sisters were a force to be reckoned with, they looked sweet and innocent like Belle but inside they were sharp and witty with a good eye for loopholes just like Nathan.

 **The End**


End file.
